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Who is known as the 'Father of India's Space Programme'?
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Answer: Option D — Vikram Sarabhai
Detailed Solution
Dr Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai (1919-1971) was an Indian physicist and institution builder, born in Ahmedabad into a wealthy family of industrialists. He studied at Cambridge and did research on cosmic rays.
Sarabhai is called the "Father of the Indian Space Programme" because he envisioned and built India's space programme, believing that space technology could help solve India's real problems, such as communication, weather forecasting, education and the management of natural resources. His contributions include:
Founding the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad in 1947, often called the "cradle of space sciences in India".
Persuading the government to set up the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) in 1962, with himself as chairman.
Setting up the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) near Thiruvananthapuram, from where India's first rocket was launched on 21 November 1963.
Founding the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on 15 August 1969, replacing INCOSPAR. He was its first chairman.
Initiating India's first satellite project, which led to the launch of Aryabhata in 1975, and the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE, 1975-76).
He also played a key role in setting up the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A, 1961), the Ahmedabad Textile Industry's Research Association (ATIRA), and the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts with his wife, the dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai. After Homi Bhabha's death in 1966, he also headed the Atomic Energy Commission.
Sarabhai died suddenly at Kovalam, Kerala, on 30 December 1971. He received the Padma Bhushan (1966) and the Padma Vibhushan (posthumously, 1972). The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram is named after him, and the lander of Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3, "Vikram", was named in his honour. A crater on the Moon has also been named after him.
Why not the other options?
Homi J. Bhabha is the father of India's nuclear programme.
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is called the "Missile Man of India".
Satish Dhawan was ISRO chairman (1972-84) and is regarded as the father of experimental fluid dynamics research in India; the Sriharikota launch centre is named after him.
Quick tip
Remember: Vikram Sarabhai = father of India's space programme (PRL 1947, INCOSPAR 1962, ISRO 1969); Homi Bhabha = nuclear programme; Kalam = Missile Man; Chandrayaan lander "Vikram" named after Sarabhai.
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Scientists, Inventions & Discoveries — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Scientists, Inventions & Discoveries, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers famous scientists and their contributions, major inventions and their inventors, important discoveries in physics, chemistry and biology, Indian scientists and their work, and Nobel Prizes in science. Questions commonly match an invention with its inventor (the telephone with Alexander Graham Bell, and the World Wide Web with Tim Berners-Lee), a discovery with its scientist (penicillin with Alexander Fleming), or an Indian scientist with their work, such as C. V. Raman and the Raman effect, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930. Practise the scientists, inventions and discoveries questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.